An Earthy Approach

PROFILE

Consultant Casual In His Style But Not About The Environment

Ben Breedlove considers himself ''a fish kisser and a bunny hugger,'' but don't call him a typical environmentalist.

''The environmental movement is more emotional than analytical,'' he said. ''They know what they don't want, but they're not very good at figuring out what they do want.''

Commitment without comprehension is not his style, he said.

A principal in Breedlove, Dennis & Associates, Breedlove is an environmental consultant. Nearly all of the Winter Park company's business involves advising developers through government approvals.

While critics accuse companies like Breedlove, Dennis & Associates of helping developers cut corners, Breedlove said he is not a proponent of wildfire growth. Growth, he said, is going to cause some damage to the environment. So the question is: What should people do to better coexist with nature?

''We're continually operating on the environment without a game plan,'' Breedlove said. ''A surgeon operating on a person's kidneys must be concerned about the whole body not just the kidneys.''

He insists that proper management is the answer.

Orlando lawyer Irby Pugh, who has done extensive legal work for the Sierra Club and is an expert on environmental law, said he disagrees with Breedlove's way of thinking. The Endangered Species Act, Pugh said, shows that, in some cases, developers should simply leave a habitat untouched.

He also said he is generally skeptical of professional environmental consultants, which are competing for business. Many of the companies, Pugh said, ''often look for ways to evade at least the intent of environmental laws.''

Breedlove said many environmental decisions are focused too narrowly on preservation.

''Preservation in the absence of management is not something that should be particularly desired,'' Breedlove said.

As an example of control, Breedlove cited one of his company's projects - Celebration, the vast Disney Development Co. community planned for thousands of acres in Osceola County.

''It concentrates people where people already are,'' he said.

Breedlove grew up at Norias and Foshalee, two huge quail-hunting plantations north of Tallahassee. His father handled the plantations' wildlife, and the experience instilled in him the philosophy of managing the environment, he said.

''We had more quail per acre than any preserved environment,'' he said.

In college, Breedlove studied game and fisheries management and earned bachelor's and master's degrees. After graduating from Auburn University in 1966, he began a three-year hitch in the Army. He served with the 1st Calvary Division and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for jockeying helicopters on reconnaissance missions in Vietnam.

Many flights involved skimming along the treetops in search of enemy positions, Breedlove said, but he came through unscathed. Flying helicopters laden with reconnaissance gear was quite an adventure.

''Like dancing on a greasy BB,'' he said. ''It really required a delicate touch just to get the thing off the ground.''

After Vietnam, Breedlove studied environmental biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His first postgraduate job, with Duke Power Co. in Charlotte, N.C., put his education to good use: He analyzed the environmental effect of nuclear-power production.

When he started his own environmental consulting company in Gainesville in 1975, he integrated a folksy approach into his management style.

And although Breedlove, Dennis & Associates has a professional business manager, so the staff can focus on consulting, the company retains a relaxed air.

''There's no rank here by title,'' Breedlove said. ''Knowledge is what counts.''

Breedlove's office is small and sparse. He works at a photographer's light table. Books, reports, maps and aerial photos are stacked everywhere. He often wears jeans and a khaki shirt open at the collar to work.

''I like to work comfortably,'' he said. For good reason: His job involves spending a great deal of time tramping through swamps and woods.

Work consumes nearly all the time of the divorced father of three. But that doesn't seem to bother him.

''Like the frog said, time is fun when you're having flies.''

Breedlove's speech is peppered with such slightly altered expressions.

People have to listen closely to him, or they'll lose track of where he's going, said Michael Dennis, his partner.

''It took me three years to learn that,'' he said.

Breedlove likes to rise about 5:30 a.m. and get in a little quiet reading time.

''It's a good time to get up,'' he said. ''People aren't bugging you yet.'' A lot of his reading is about people and what they are doing to the environment.

Breedlove said he does make time to work on community projects. He serves on the planning task force of the Central Florida Zoological Society, the governing body of the Central Florida Zoological Park on Lake Monroe in north Seminole County.